Atlas
by WOWZAcoolBEANS
Summary: Most of the time it felt like Allen kept the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was natural for the people who loved him to want to take some off, right? Allen/Lenalee. Extended summary inside.


**Title:** Atlas

**Synopsis:** Most of the time it felt like Allen kept the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was natural for the people who loved him to want to take some off, right? Lenalee wants nothing more than to give Allen some sort of reassurance in his life. He, however, just wants to protect her from the darkness within himself. Allen/Lenalee.

**Rating: **K+

**A/N**: On a rare break from my NaNoWriMo, I decided to write my first -Man fic! YES. Set between the time that Cross is killed and they find Timothy during some random made-up mission, this is an Allen and Lenalee mini love story. But yes, this is my first and hopefully there will be many more (and better ones) to follow. But I love this pairing and I hope that you enjoy this. Drop a review off with your opinion, if you could, please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own -Man because if I did there would already be as season three of the anime!

--

Most of the time it felt like Allen kept the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was natural for the people who loved him to want to take some off, right?

--

Sighing, Lenalee closed her eyes as she set her head on the pillow in the small room at the inn that they were staying at. Tomorrow they would leave this place and return back to the Order for their next assignment. That was all they did now; flitting from assignment to assignment they were constantly trailed by groups of people all whispering Allen's name, each making their _wrong_ assumptions about someone who they didn't even know.

It was frustrating to know that everyone was so against her friend, but what hurt even more was the fact that he seemed to be fine with it. Even with all of the rumors flying around and everyone watching their backs even more carefully than they had been before, Allen was as strong as ever. A smile on his face, he went from place to place working harder than ever, never taking a moment to realize what sort of trouble he was really in.

"You're almost too strong." The whisper was the truth; he was too strong for his own good. Even when things didn't work out he tried and tried, almost to the point of death, and even at death's gates he refused to stop, just as he did when Tyki Mikk had literally put a hole in his heart. "You've survived too much."

There was a space of time where nothing happened. On the streets outside of her window Lenalee could hear carriages pass by and the occasional drunken voice shouting out to its companions. Around her in the hotel there was very little activity. They had had a standard mission today; just some demons crowding around something that could have been an Innocence fragment, but what turned out not to be. A dead-end that had nearly gotten them killed.

The battle had been fierce, so it was no wonder that her companions were probably sleeping soundly at this point. No one had been seriously injured, but there was still a point of exhaustion that was not easy to be rid of. Lenalee was surprised at how her own worry kept her awake; it was safer to sleep, but yet, without any rhyme or reason, she found herself awake and miserable.

There was a yell of agony from the room next door, and without thinking, Lenalee ran.

Later that night when Lenalee was alone once again she would think of what her reaction would have been had she not known that it was Allen who was yelling. Would she have run immediately to the side of one of the Finders? To Link? To Kanda? The answer would have probably been yes, but perhaps the speed of her run, so fast and so desperate that her Dark Boots tingled and nearly activated before she reached the door.

"Allen-kun! Allen-kun! Are you alright?" She yelled through the door, banging on it a few times, not caring if the people around them were woken from their slumber.

Before Lenalee set in on another batch of knocking, the door opened slowly and lazily as Allen wiped the sleep from his eyes and yawned. "Lenalee-san, what are you doing here?" He asked, and feeling rather silly, Lenalee stared at him for just a moment.

"Weren't you yelling?" Suddenly she felt sort of naked and exposed, feeling as though she had made some grave mistake in coming to see if her friend was alright. Was the want to see her friend so strong in her that she imagined his cries? "I thought that I heard you through the wall."

A small, timid laugh came from Allen. "Yeah, I did yell… I thought I saw something in my room and it startled me. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh." Lenalee said, hoping that the vague rejection she felt wasn't apparent in her voice. "So you're alright?"

Smiling, Allen put a hand behind his head in one of his usual carefree poses. "Yeah I'm fine." Forcing a smile onto her face she began to turn away, until she felt a warm hand on her shoulder, stopping her movement. "Thank you for worrying about me, Lenalee." The smile on his face was heartbreaking. Sometimes it was hard for Lenalee to believe that this boy was so young; there was so much depth to him that a person would not expect from someone their age.

"It's no problem Allen, if you need me, I'll be next door." His smile remained as he nodded. The two friends said their goodbyes as he shut the door and Lenalee headed back to her room. In her mind she knew that he would not need her; Allen hardly needed anyone. For someone who said that other people were the strength of one of his arms, he didn't seem to need them that terribly much.

There was so much he could accomplish alone. The world rested on his shoulders alone, and he refused to give someone the hassle of sharing it with him, though there were many people who would have been willing to.

As Lenalee lied down she could hear the cries of Allen in the room next to her. They had become muffled; he obviously didn't want to worry her and put a pillow to his face or something of that sort. Sadly, she wished that he didn't find that necessary. If he needed to yell and let his fears out, Lenalee would let him. He didn't have to try to protect her in such a way.

But since she knew that there was nothing that she could do to change the situation, Lenalee remained quiet, staring at the ceiling of her room until she eventually drifted off to sleep.

--

"Lenalee?" Thinking that it was some sort of dream or a phantom in her mind, Lenalee kept her eyes closed for just another moment, savoring the feel of sleep on her tired body. "Lenalee?" Realizing what it was, it only took a moment for Lenalee to shoot straight up out of bed. Almost running, Lenalee got to the door and opened it to see Allen, turning away.

"Allen-kun? What is it? Is there something wrong?" It was selfish, but she was somewhat pleased by this. Not that he was having problems, of course, but that he had chosen her to go to. When they had first met it was something that she had wondered, as she did with every new exorcist. Would that person be able to get along with her? Would they be friends? Would they be able to share their troubles with her and could she do the same with them?

Dark circles that had not been there a few months previously surrounded Allen's eyes from lack of sleep. The two of them had not been on any missions together in quite some time and she had not noticed how tired and how thin the boy had become. "I guess that I've just had some insomnia. Would you mind it if I… If I just sat with you for a few minutes? I won't be that much of a problem, I promise." He paused, something contemplative in his voice. "I think that maybe you might make me feel a bit better."

"Of course Allen-kun." She opened the door wider and let him in. Immediately he gravitated to the chair that went with the desk that was stationed in the corner of the room across from the bed. "Do you want to talk, or something?" There was almost a hint of hope in her voice, that Lenalee wished wasn't there. It was just that she, so badly, wanted him to reach out to her. Just like he was the supporting pillar for her, she wanted to be a pillar of support for him as well.

Casually, Allen sat down on the chair. After lingering for a moment, Lenalee took a seat cross-legged on the bed. "No, I don't think I need to do that; I just… needed to be with someone. I was having a bad dream; I can't remember the specifics, but I just needed to make sure that everyone else here was breathing."

It wasn't quite true that Allen did not know what he had dreamt of, but it was something that he didn't want to ponder on. When his master had told him that he was supposed to kill someone he loved to become the fourteenth, Allen had not known who it would be. But more and more he found himself caring more and more for the girl sitting across from him, and though he was worried that it would be himself who took her life, he wanted to spend as much time with her as he could.

Not a single person in the world could make him smile the way that just a few moments with Lenalee could.

"Nightmare?" Lenalee asked as she leaned against the wall that was next to the small bed. "I'm sorry." Not quite able to help it, Lenalee looked down. The fact that he wasn't sleeping was upsetting to her. The least that God could do for Allen was allow him to sleep.

Seeing the look on her face, Allen's worry grew. "No, no! Don't be sorry! It's not your fault." The nervous laughter came next, a few soft chuckles that he couldn't quite control. "It's not like it happens often. Just tonight. So I just thought I'd drop by." After he stopped laughing he took a moment to look at Lenalee. "You know, just being with you makes me feel better already." His voice was calm and caring, the sort of voice someone used when another person was upset and you were trying to calm them.

This just made Lenalee more frustrated.

"Allen-kun!" Lenalee said as a few tears fell down her face. "Don't say these things, I'm supposed to be here to help but… but I'm useless." Swiftly, Allen moved over to Lenalee and took her in his arms, her head on his shoulder.

"Lenalee." He said as he pressed his arms tight into her. There was something just warm about her presence that made him feel lighter, as if a weight was taken off of his shoulders. Atlas handing Hercules the world for a few minutes so his shoulders could rest. Though Allen was not Atlas; he would never betray Lenalee the way that the man who held the world betrayed the almost God. "You're anything but useless."

And so the two of them sat until they both fell asleep, Lenalee using Allen as her pillow and Allen using Lenalee as his blanket. The one to lie her head on and the one to give him warmth in his life.

When the sun rose, the two of them still slept, smiles on their faces, happy that they had the other one with them.

--

_Fin_


End file.
